In Memoriam: Delbert A Fisher, MD (August 12, 1928 – March 4, 2026)
Del Fisher, MD, one of the 38 founding members of our Society (formerly the Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society), passed away at age 97 years in March, 2026. Dr. Fisher was an icon in the field of endocrinology, the only individual to serve as president of PES (1982-83), the Endocrine Society (1983-84), and the American Thyroid Association (1988-89) (and also the American Pediatric Society, 1992-93).
Del was born in Placerville, CA, a 4th generation Californian. He attended UC Berkeley, both as an undergraduate and Medical School (the first in his family to attend college). As a medical student, he began work with Dr. Donald Pickering (a pediatrician and an endocrinologist), studying thyroid function in newborn Macaque monkeys. During his pediatric residency training at the Medical Center of the University of California, San Francisco, Del studied the effect of radioiodine thyroid ablation on growth and development of the Macaque newborn, pioneering the use of levothyroxine treatment for neonatal hypothyroidism. Dr. Pickering came from Yale; when the monkeys were shipped from there to San Francisco, it was Del’s job to pick them up at the airport and “baby sit” them over the weekend! This early work engendered a life-long interest in fetal, maternal, and neonatal thyroid physiology.
Dr. Pickering received funding for one of the first NIH supported Primate Centers, located in Portland, OR. After a stint in the AirForce, Del rejoined Dr. Pickering in Oregon in 1957 as he completed his pediatric residency and endocrinology training. Upon completion of training in 1960, he was recruited to the University of Arkansas to be Director of the Division of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism. During his time in Arkansas, Del undertook studies of iodine kinetics, confirming the interaction between iodine intake and thyroid function. The 1960’s was also an active time in the civil rights movement, one that both Del and his wife Beverly supported.
In 1960, Del was recruited by Dr. Joseph St. Geme, Jr at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, again as head of the Division of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism. At Harbor-UCLA, Del collaborated with a core of adult endocrinologists; this group developed a number of immunoassays for thyroid-related hormones and applied them to the study of the ontogeny of the mammalian thyroid system, now using a fetal sheep model. During his career, Del trained 49 fellows in pediatric and ob-gyn endocrinology. Among fellows in the lab were Drs. Jean Dussaut, an adult endocrinologist with an interest in T4 measurement, and Mark Sperling, with an interest in the application of insulin and glucagon assays. When Dr. Dussault returned to Quebec, he decided to try and apply the T4 assay to newborn screening. At that time, Quebec was collecting blood spotted on filter paper specimens to screen for phenylketonuria. In 1973, Dr. Dussault published successful measurement of T4 in these blood spots, and in 1975 he reported detection of 7 infants with congenital hypothyroidism out of 47,000 newborns, an incidence of 1:6714. This report led to the rapid expansion of newborn screening for congenital hypothyroidism in the US, Canada, Europe, Japan, and Australia. In 1978, Del was first author on a study reporting detection of 277 infants with congenital hypothyroidism out of 1 million newborns screened in North America, an incidence of 1:3684.
During the 23 years Del was at Harbor-UCLA, this group of endocrinologists developed assays (primarily radioimmunoassays) to measure multiple hormones, including TSH, T4, T3, cortisol, insulin, glucagon, epinephrine, norepinephrine, dopamine, arginine vasopressin, and growth factors, including epidermal growth factor and nerve growth factor. The ability to measure these hormones led to multiple studies of the ontogeny of fetal and maternal physiology. Over his career, Dr. Fisher was the author or co-author of over 500 scientific papers, book chapters, and reviews. Del served as Editor-in-chief of the Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism and Pediatric Research. In these endeavors, Del was assisted by his wife, Beverly (Del and Beverly had three children, first David, then twins, Mary and Tom). Del and Beverly were married for over 70 years, before her death in 2022,
One of Del’s colleagues at Harbor-UCLA was Dr. Albert Nichols, an adult endocrinologist who founded Nichol’s Institute, a reference laboratory. In 1991, Dr. Nichols recruited Del, initially as President of Nichols Reference Laboratory, and subsequently as President of Academic Associates and Chief Science Officer at Nichols Institute (now Quest Diagnostics), where he worked until his retirement in 2007.
Recognition of Dr. Fisher’s lifelong achievements included numerous awards; among the most prestigious: the Howland Award from the American Pediatric Society in 2001, and the Van Wyk Prize from our Society in 2008. We have truly lost a giant on our field.
Stephen LaFranchi, MD
Professor Emeritus, Pediatrics
Oregon Health & Sciences University